Amid the pandemic, a local startup has been busy, growing its client network to help families seeking affordable housing.
Dallas-based BoodsKapper, an AI software solutions provider for housing authorities, has landed four new clients, co-founder and CEO Bejoy Narayana told NTX Inno.
The company, which first began working with the Dallas Housing Authority in July 2019, is now also working with Fort Worth Housing Solutions, the Springfield Metropolitan Housing Authority in Ohio, The Lafayette Housing Authority in Indiana and Michigan’s Taylor Housing Authority. The move comes amid planned expansions into new regions, after the company landed a Seed funding round in January for an undisclosed amount, and it brings the total number of families it helps serve to 35,000.
“A house is a stable thing for you… when these people are looking to relocate and for somewhat long-term housing, and if we can make an intervention and make more choices available, then our work is very fruitful, it has meaning,” Narayana said.
BoodsKapper, which was launched in 2016, provides an AI software called InspectionMate that helps housing authorities make their housing rental processes more efficient through things like inspector route optimization and inspection tracking. Typically, housing authority clients have 90 days to use a housing voucher. The traditionally slows process, which could take up to 15 business days, of clearing a housing unit for inspection meant about 70 percent of clients were unable to find housing within that window, Dallas Housing Authority CEO Troy Broussard previously told Inno.
And since the pandemic, BoodsKapper has been adding new features to its software to help those involved in the inspection process. It has added virtual inspections, which verify the inspection location through the software, then notifies a landlord when the inspection is taking place so they can virtually follow along. It has also rolled out a portal that allows landlords in a housing authority's network know about and match with prospective tenants. As the network of clients grows, this helps people find their housing quicker since many landlords have properties around a metro area, Narayana said.
“I really think that [organizations] are doing something good but what we could do better is ensuring that people have more choices, that they can actually find something that works for them,” Narayana said. “For people who are already living in assisted units, they have a lot more needs now, peoples’ income changing… and things like that.”
As many urban areas rely on continuum of care providers, HUD-funded organizations that coordinate housing needs through local nonprofits in an area, BoodsKapper is looking at expanding more into that market, with potential clients in even larger cities like Houston.
“That is what we expect to do at scale, be in every city in the U.S.; the people who are looking for an assisted house, if we can give them choices… then that is something extremely impactful,” Narayana said.
